


Jughead Jones Saves Christmas

by miss_eee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bughead Secret Santa, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 09:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13144209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_eee/pseuds/miss_eee
Summary: After a minor injury takes Betty Cooper out of commission, can Jughead Jones give her the perfect Cooper Christmas?





	Jughead Jones Saves Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cooperjones2020](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cooperjones2020/gifts).



Christmas was without a doubt, Betty Cooper’s favorite holiday. From the presents and baking and all of the food, to the white winter wonderland that Riverdale became every year, it was almost like she was designed solely with the Christmas holiday in mind. 

 

This year though, would be very different than Cooper Christmas’s of years past. Instead of a midnight candlelight service at church, followed by opening one present from under the tree, a large breakfast the following morning, and a day spent opening presents and cooking a large dinner, this Christmas would include only a phone call to her parents and an afternoon cooking a much smaller meal. It was their first Christmas in their new house, her and Jughead had moved in only a week earlier, and were still in that “living out of boxes” phase. Her parents, in an attempt to make amends with her sister, Polly, had traveled to Connecticut to spend the holiday with her and the twins. Betty and Jughead had been unable to make the trip, their work schedules didn’t allow for much time off, leaving them alone in their new house for the holiday.

 

She was trying hard to put on a strong face, but nothing about this Christmas felt the same as years past. In the middle of moving, most of her wrapping had been set aside, and now, on Christmas Eve’s Eve, hardly anything was wrapped, and she found herself wandering the aisles of the Pick-N-Save, gathering the rest of her baking supplies for tomorrow. A full schedule, starting at 6AM that included peppermint bark, snickerdoodles and frosted sugar cookies, all she had left on her list was baking chocolate, and after walking up and down the baking aisle for the last ten minutes, she’d finally found it. Hidden away on the very top shelf, pushed all the way to the back, the four little bars of chocolate that she needed. She stretched up on her tiptoes, but still couldn’t reach them. Sighing, she looked around, hoping to find a salesclerk or a taller fellow shopper who could assist her, but the aisle was empty. Not letting herself be defeated by packages of chocolate, she jumped again, landing on the steel shelfing, swinging her arm high and grabbing the box that held the final four packages of baking chocolate. But then, just as swiftly as she had secured the packages of chocolate, she felt it, a twisting and pinching in her back, a shooting pain that spread up her shoulder and down her leg. 

 

Her feet firmly back on the ground, she dropped the chocolates into her cart, wincing in pain as she hobbled towards the checkout. Whatever she had done, was not a good thing. By the time she had paid for her groceries and loaded them into her car, tears were streaming freely down her face, the pain almost unbearable. She managed to guide her car through the snow-covered streets of Riverdale, towards the small house that was now her home. Reaching for the bags in her backseat, she felt that twist and pinch again, leaving the groceries behind she stumbled inside. 

 

“Juggie.” Her voice called out into the darkness of their living room, soft and barely more than a whisper, tears cutting through. 

 

“Betts, what’s wrong?” The instant he’d entered the room from their kitchen, he could sense that something was amiss, watching as she sank into the couch, tears falling from her eyes. 

 

“Jug, I think I hurt my back.” 

 

“Alright, you sit there, I’ll bring in the groceries and then get you settled.” 

 

Sinking further into the couch, pulling the blanket up over her legs and starting to unzip her coat, she watched as he bustled in and out of the house, taking multiple trips to bring in all of the groceries she’d need for the following days. He helped her out of her coat, propping her up with pillows and placing the heating pad on her back, wrapping blankets up tight around her. She heard him making a phone call, soft murmurs in the other room. 

 

“Betty, will you be okay here for a few minutes? I called Kevin and he called you in a prescription, I just need to run out and pick it up.” Groaning slightly, she tried to roll over to her side, but found that only caused more pain. She sighed, giving into the immobility of her present circumstance. The heat was helping, but she knew it was only temporary relief. Her eyes started to drift shut, feeling the pain and exhaustion finally take hold of her body. 

 

She wasn’t sure how long it had been, but the light flicking on overhead woke her from her short nap. Jughead was back, carrying in one hand ginger ale, in the other, a prescription muscle relaxer, compliments of having a best friend who had chosen to become a doctor. He handed her a glass of water and one pill, creating for her a little space on the side table that she could readily reach. He stretched into the space across from her, gently pulling her legs up to rest on his lap, flicking on a Christmas Story, but once again, her eyes started to drift off to sleep. 

 

Several hours had passed, when she stirred softly on the couch, feeling the need to use the restroom. Jughead still sat at the end of the couch, his head slumped back against the pillows, eyes closed and mouth agape. Her feet softly hit the floor, and she used her arms to push herself up off of the couch. She stumbled slightly, leaning into the wall for guidance as she staggered down the hallway. Once she had taken care of herself, she stepped back into the hallway, only to feel strong arms engulf her lightly. 

 

“Betts, you shouldn’t be up walking around.” 

 

“Juggie.” Staring up into his eyes, she ran her fingers along his jawline, over his cheek. “Did you know you’re really pretty?” Her head was nestled into his chest, and she felt him laugh against her, but he lightly grabbed her arm, and guided her back to her space on the couch. It wasn’t long after that, nestled back into the comfort of the couch, the heating pad warming her back again, and she had fallen asleep again. 

 

-

 

The following morning, she awoke in a panic to her alarm blaring loudly from the table beside the couch. For a moment, her focus was on Christmas and her full day of baking cookies and wrapping presents, she had forgotten about the sharp pain in her back. Sitting up from the couch though, all of the pain came rushing back, causing tears to well in her eyes. Jughead was gone from the edge of the couch, but not for long, as he must have heard her whimper, because he came back into the living room carrying another glass of water and more medicine.

 

“Jughead. I can’t take this and sleep all day. I’ve got too much to do today.”

 

“Betty, you need to rest, it’s the only way your back will heal. You’ve already laid out all of your recipes, and there’s a strict cookie baking schedule taped to the fridge, I think I can handle the cookie baking.”

 

-

 

He could not handle it. The first time he tried to melt the chocolate in the microwave like the directions said to do, he’d forgotten to take out the spoon and almost caught the whole thing on fire. He forgot to put flour on his hands when he started on the snickerdoodles, ending with his hands in a sticky, doughy mess. And the sugar cookies? Why does the frosting need to be homemade, why can’t it be store bought? The snowmen looked more like rectangular white blobs, and the Christmas trees came out shaped like triangles, no definition between the branches, but he bit into one that had already cooled, and by some Christmas miracle, they tasted exactly like the ones Betty made every year, even if they looked like they’d been decorated by a kindergartner. 

 

His stomach started to rumble, a full morning of eating cookie dough and he was in need of something of real substance. Rummaging around in the kitchen, he found what he needed for tomato soup and grilled cheese, and managed not to burn the sandwiches too much. He filled a glass with more ginger ale, and carried a plate into the living room. The smell of the soup and sandwich must have woken her up, her eyes danced up to meet his almost as soon as he had set the food down on the table beside her. 

 

“Cookie baking is complete. I don’t know how you manage to make as many as you do each year, I swear I ate half of the dough.” He blew lightly on the soup, cooling it down before handing it to her, along with another small pill. “How are you feeling?”

 

“I’m sleepy, and if I lay perfectly still, it doesn’t hurt. Did you know you have flour in your hair?” Her body shook lightly with laughter, and he could tell she was trying to hold it in, because the movement hurt her back. After her soup and sandwich had been picked at, and she had fallen back to sleep, he carried the dishes back into the kitchen, feeling overwhelmed by the vast number of dishes he’d managed to dirty over the course of the morning. He started slowly, loading the dishwasher first, and then soaking the remainder that didn’t fit. Little by little, the kitchen started to resemble the immaculate cooking space that Betty usually maintained. Feeling satisfied with his work, he settled upstairs to start on his next project- wrapping presents. 

 

Most things had been wrapped and sent with Betty’s parents a few days earlier, and he’d already shipped his presents to his mom and JB in Toledo, so there wasn’t, in theory, much left to wrap. However, wrapping had never been his strong suit, and the paper she’d bought this year didn’t include the little guideline boxes. Grabbing the first present, a sweater for Kevin, he cut a jagged chunk that turned out to be far larger of a piece than he needed, and he ended up folding the sweater over in the wrapping paper, almost rolling it like a burrito. Too much tape and a half-jumbled name tag later, present one was done. The next several hours passed much the same way, either the piece of wrapping paper he cut was too large or too small, and nothing was cut with a straight edge. Finally, he stepped back and took a look at the mountain of wrapped presents that had taken over their guest room, and wondered to himself exactly how much money Betty had spent on Christmas this year, but then decided that he really didn’t want to know. Carrying as much as he could in each arm, he started to bring the presents downstairs to place underneath the tree. 

 

The tree. He’d almost forgotten about that. A Cooper family tradition, of leaving the large blue spruce bare until Christmas Eve, at which time Alice and Hal would decorate it overnight, while Polly and Betty slept, so when they awoke on Christmas morning, they’d be greeted with a fully decorated tree and mountains of presents. He woke her only to give her a piece of toast and some more medicine, before heading out to the garage in hopes of finding the box of decorations.

 

Back inside with the boxes of decorations, he was surprised to see that the couch was empty of his blonde girlfriend, and found her rummaging around in the kitchen, a misshaped snowman hanging from her lips. 

 

“Betty, you shouldn’t be up.”

 

“I know Jug, but I’m feeling so restless and helpless. At least let me help you decorate the tree.” He could see it in her eyes though, as she poured herself a glass of milk. The sleepiness of the medication was taking over her, she wouldn’t be able to stay awake much longer. 

 

“Why don’t you sit on the couch and watch me, and direct me where I need to place each ornament?” 

 

He had helped guide her back into the living room, back into her spot on the couch, pulling the blankets up around her and tucking her in. As he had suspected, she didn’t stay awake for long, he’d only managed to check the first string of lights before he heard her soft snores. Lacking her direction, he placed the ornaments around the string of lights in the best way he could, hoping she wouldn’t wake up and notice the lopsidedness of the tree. 

 

-

 

The following morning, the sun beamed in strongly through the soft white curtains, bright white reflecting off of the new snow that had fallen in the middle of the night. All of the lights in the house were off, the large blue spruce standing tall in the center of the living room, illuminating the space in a soft, multicolored glow. She stretched, feeling the ache in her knees and arms from laying on the couch for the last few days. She slowly arched her back, feeling a slight tug, but not the nagging sharp pain that had plagued her since Saturday. Stretching her legs once more, she felt them hit Jughead, as he still slept on the edge of the couch next to her. His body was slumped against the back of the couch, remnants of flour still in his hair, and she felt overwhelmed with the amount of love that he had shown her the past few days, taking care of her, and preparing Christmas for her when she wasn’t able to. Maybe it wasn’t the Cooper Family Christmas that she was used to, but a Cooper Christmas with a dash of Jones.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas, cooperjones2020! I hope you enjoyed your Bughead Secret Santa fic!


End file.
